RedBarn Studios

this past Monday i hosted my 5th Annual Dye Day but didn’t dye any of my own fabrics…i was so caught up in seeing what everyone else was doing.    on Tuesday though, the itch to get my fingers in some dye couldn’t be stopped. I decided to try a new thing for me.

about 3 months ago i made a large portable flat top for surface design.   i spread my soda ashed soaked fab and painted on the dye…usually I scrunch in a container and squirt dye over it.

i LOVE how these new pieces came out!!! I call this one the Melody FAb cause this is just the type of fab she creates.

the Melody FAb

i know you’re supposed to work to get the bubbles out but look at the magic my bubbles produced… SPLENDID indeed!

Melody FAb detail

this one looks like beautiful stonework or a piece of granite…mmmh.   this was the one that started the itch….I sat up in bed on Monday eve and thought, what if I diluted black and havana brown.  can you believe those were the only 2 colours i used here?

stonework

the 2nd piece i painted was one of the gradation fabs I did for Nancy Crow workshop, originally golden yellow, it got messed up in the wash with green splotches so i saved it for the overdye pile.

forest fire

below is the 3rd piece I painted….lots of cerulean blue, sky blue, black and the last of the chatruese dye….a perfect storm.

storm

Doesn’t this next one look like an over saturated pic of an x-ray of teeth?   this was another that needed to be overdyed so i pleated and scrunched it then squirted (back to regular programing) 2 colours on it still managing to keep some of the original yellow colour.   this’ll be an interesting piece to use in my work.

teeth

so here’s who came over to play on Monday…

Michele (rinsing fabs)…

DeLane (on right mxing dyes)…

Susan (all geared up for play)…

& PJ (our resident newbie)

It were fun!
(Mummy please don’t mind the language).

Tags: hand dyed, hand dyeing, pandoras, surface design by grace
6 Comments »

A few weeks back when, for some bizarre reason, we were inundated with oodles and oodles of snow for the 2nd time this year, I got caught up big time in the snow dyeing jag that went around.

I gathered up a big rubber maid tub of snow and proceeded to colour me some fabric.

And yeh…I think I went overboard a bit there in the snow gathering department.

BTW, forgot how cold snow can be if you intend to shovel it with your bare hands so had to don hubby’s hiking mittens.

I proceeded to mix up 3 colours per batch of fabric and got to work making some snow cones.

The colours are always sooo delicious looking dontcha think? Because I normally dye in my garage which was way too cold to stand in for any length of time I set up shop in our sun room.

I was very careful to roll up the area rug and put down a drip cloth and newspaper on the floor under the table and on the table as well.

Here’s the 2nd colours now added to the snow. Last time I snow dyed I used my smoothie machine to crush the ice from my fridge (think I’ll buy a bag of ice next time instead).

I also had the fabric sitting in a basin that was tilted on one side so the fab would not sit in the melted ice.

This time, as you can see in the photo below, I used plastic grids suspended over each basin so the melted snow drained away from the fab. Doesn’t it look a bit like I’ve burned the tops of the fabrics in the photo.

It took a while for me wash out the fabrics. Remember I was in the sun room –not my normal dyeing location — and after all was done and things were cleared away, I put the fabrics on a chair by the garage door to rinse out later.

But, someone moved moved them to a different place. Believe it or not, because they were not there for me to notice I completely forgot about them until a friend reminded me that she had not seen the results of my snow dyeing session.

Duh! I eventually found their hiding place so here they are. Not too, too  please with the results but they will do for now.

Berry Patch 1

Rapunzel Gold

Berry Patch 2

12 Limes and a Lemon

Of course my favorite, because I am still very much in a chartreuse mood, is…..12 Limes and a Lemon.

Enjoy the eye candy!

Tags: hand dyeing, surface design by grace
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My friend, Delane,\’a0 had asked me to make a wedding guest book for the marriage of her son Ted to his bride Lauren.
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I really wanted to make a special gift especially for Lauren, she’s the photographer who took those wonderful pictures of my work a while back. Her favorite colours were red, orange and brown and colours of the wedding were in the Fall colour range.
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I had no idea where to go with this at first and took some time mulling over a few ideas, I remembered that she wanted me incorporate the words “our wedding, underneath the trees” in her wedding book so I started with that.
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Using a Stewart Gill stencil from their Flowers of Scotland collection, I reduced its size and cut out a new stencil out of freezer paper.
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After ironing it to a piece of white silk dupioni, I painted it with Stewart Gill Brass Gold metallic paint.
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I now needed to get Lauren’s words on the fabric. Because I don’t have access to a thermofax machine, I decided to try a new product
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I had recently bought, Photo EZ silk screen. This was way cool and easy to use.
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Photo EZ sheets are made from a silk screen mesh coated with a light sensitive water soluble polymer.
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Using a saturated black image printed on plain white paper, it only needs sunlight and plain tap water to develop. Off I went and developed 3 separate screens for the front of the guestbook.
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The silkscreen was taped down with masking tape (above) and metallic paint was squeegees through the mesh with the edge of an expired credit card.
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I added Lauren and Ted’s names to the front of the book as well. After drying, I was now ready to make the book.
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Cutting 2 boards for the front and back, I covered them both in the silk dupioni.
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For the spine of the guestbook I used two coordinating batik fabrics and staggered them on the left edges of the boards.
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Lasty, I glued a passion red bookcloth (afterall, they are newlyweds aren’t they?) on the inside for the lining.
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I cut papers for guests to sign and then decided to add some black cardstock so they can also add pictures to personalize their book. It was finally coming together.
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Using a Japanese stab stitch method, I sandwiched the papers in between the covers and stitched the book together, tying a gold ribbon at the spine edge for a touch of embellishment. I named this one “Beneath the Trees”.
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I wrapped the guestbook in my signature brown paper and tied a red ribbon around the gift.
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I was very pleased to hear that Lauren squealed with delight upon opening\’a0 the package.\’a0 Check Delane’s blog for some pics of the absolutely beautiful bride Lauren made….and Ted looked dashing too!
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See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: Art, commissions, journals, paper art, surface design by k grace howes
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Back in May I was privileged to be asked to join a new art group, Fiber Art Options.

We are 7 fiber artists working together to promote and support each other. I had not had a chance to post and entry on our blog but now you can visit and read my first post.

I had a chance to play with soy wax again and created a few new fabrics for my stash. Like….big time!!

Remember in a previous  post about attending AQS in Knoxville a few weeks back…..well guess what….I bought not a stitch of fabric!

Yes, you heard me right. There was nothing out there I desparately needed because I am soooo much into creating my own pieces to use in my artwork. How cool is that piece above!!!!

In the post over at FAO I described the soy wax process I used to create the 3 pieces of fabric. Nice….even if I say so myself!

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See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: artful creations, FAO, surface design by k grace howes
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Don’t forget that Collage Mania Preview begins today. Head on over to Virginia’s blog to see all the pieces and bid lots next week.

I know there are a few pages to browse through but the eye candy is definitely worth it! And to think…one (or 2 or 3) of them could be hanging in your home soon.

Some of my favs are Jaime Fingal’s “Make Time For Art”…so very colourful; Pokey Bolton’s funky screen prints “Dickens”; the haunting look of Patti VanHuis-Cox’ “Madness”; Kathy Binns’ hidden in plain site “Octoquilt” and too many others I can’t possibly list here.

Hint, hint…..my four pieces are on page 27 but don’t go there first, you know what mine look like, have a gander at the other fantastic work others have made in honour of all those who have succumbed or survived cancer.

See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Fiberart For A Cause Team Member, fundraising for the American Cancer Society

Tags: Art, community, mixed media, surface design by k grace howes
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One of my goals this year is two-fold…to push myself to make more art quilts and put my work and my name out there….scary though it may seem at times.

To that end, last month I created a piece for the Deltas of Charlotte’s Silent Auction called “It Takes a Village“. I also knew I wanted to put a few pieces in Collage Mania this year as this is the last year it will be held.

Collage Mania 2009, a Fiberart For A Cause online fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, was founded by Virginia Speigel, an artist whose father survived colon cancer.

In trying to find a way to give more, Virginia started by raising some extra funds with a 7 postcards. That blossomed in hundreds of postcards over the last 3 years.

To date, Fiberart For A Cause has donated over $165,000 to the American Cancer Society. This year Virginia wants to raise $20,000 to top her record last year of $13,000. In order to do that she has opened it up to include not only postcard sized pieces but any collages up to 8″x10″ size.

Since I’m not a postcard type of gal, the slightly larger format worked well for me. Here are the four I donated.

Faith

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Believe

The background fabric of each collage is one of my hand dyed fabrics I screen printed and stamped. I then played with strips of fabric and paper to create each piece, then finished off with some free-motion machine quilting.

Each collage  is stamped with a word that represents the power within all of us to preserver through the worst of times, even when we feel the need to give up.

Faith…..Believe…..Release…..Trust.

Release

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Trust

This year Collage Mania will be held May 5-7th. Patrons are asked to bid on collages donated by a wonderful community of  fiber and mixed-media artists.

May 5th is Gold Donor Day where there is a minimum donation of $80.

May 5th – 7th, which is Regular Collage Mania, the minimum donation for a collage is $40.

To Donate

Cancer, at some point, touches all out lives. Please consider making a donation in honor of someone close to you who has been touched by this disease.

Bookmark the Collage Mania page and revisit the site on one of the above dates. You will be a very proud owner of a wonderful piece of art by those artist willing to give a little bit of themselves for a very worthy cause.

Each of my collages is dedicated in memory of my Aunt Cynthia, who died from cancer in 2007.

See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: Art, fiber art, hand dyed, mixed media, surface design, working small by k grace howes
7 Comments »

I put a couple of new items in my Etsy shop.

A little while ago I entered an art techniques swap and finally finished making all 121 pages. I thoroughly enjoyed coming up with the technique and…..I went green at the same time!

I used brown paper bags (from Paneras of course) and painted them to look like a metallic paper. At first I was going for leather but…..the paper sorta kinda had a mind of it’s own and turned into a bronze metallic looking paper. I also made silver metallic paper.

Anyway, after much cutting and glueing, I sent off all my 4″x 4″ cards on Sat last and found out that Margie received then okay. Phew! I didn’t fancy making them all again if they got lost on the way.

I had promised to make something with the paper and just finished it….. a “Faux Bronze Journal”

It is filled with 4 signatures of really wonderful paper to write and draw on. I could even see this one being given as a gift to that special fella.

I also finished another one that a young girl would absolutely love. Can ya tell I was in a PINK mood? The closure is a bunch of fabric and trim that I corded on the machine.

I want to try a new binding (these last few have been pamphlet stitched) so the next few journals I make will look a bit different.  Look for their unveiling soon.

See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: artful creations, journals, mixed media, paper art, surface design by k grace howes
1 Comment »

I love to carve my own rubber stamps.  I have some great commercial stamps in my stamp drawer but it’s so very cool to be able to draw something, carve it and stamp right away with it. I have a small notebook full of ideas for stamps to carve.

In a much earlier post I wrote about how much I love learning new words (has been a favorite pastime of mine since I was a young girl but heck if I can explain it). Well now I carve words.  The last few stamps I’ve carved have been words that have an impact or significant meaning to me and others.

Remember this journal I made earlier this year? First I stamped the word with foil adhesive onto my jounal then ironed gold foil onto the word.

This next stamp I just finished carving over the holidays so I have yet to use it but love the idea behind it. There’s much you can do with that one.

Another word that’s caught my eye is ” FRAGILE“  but for this one I need to find the fight font to use to denote the meaning of the word.

I have now decided I want to carve my own alphabet so I am looking for the right font with a mix of caps and lower case letters. I keep looking at the commercial alphabet sets but have yet to find one that resonates with me.

Here’s a mission for you, what other words should I carve to use in my art? Let me here your ideas.

See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: Art, monday posts, patterns, stamp carving, surface design by k grace howes
6 Comments »

Well now is the time to reveal of the winner of the “Guess My Swap Technique” I’m doing for the Arttechniques yahoo group.

drum roll pls……..

…IT IS A BROWN PAPER BAG distressed only with paints and silver ink.  I was going for an antiqued silver metal look and thanks to all the comments I received I think I got fairly close to my objective.  I must have crumpled that darned paper bag at least 5 or 6 times after each drying session because I really wanted lots of texture on it. I really like it!

The other one I did looks like bronzed metal (below). At first I was aiming for a leather-like look but eh….that sure didn’t work out. So I ended up rubbing more and more of the copper ink on it and loved the effect. The picture does not do it justice though, if only you could see this in person…and some of you lucky folks will get to once we swap next year.

So back to who won. Since no guessed exactly the right technique but everyone seemed to be in the same  ballpark I put everyone’s name in the running and used the random number generator to pick a winner. And the winner is…….

…..Anne Marie Desaulniers

Anne Marie,  email me (see sidebar) and let me know your snail mail address so I can send your surprise gift on over to you. Congratulations and thanks for playing along everyone.

Now I’m off to make 122 little 4″x4″ cards. Whew! I’m tired already just thinking about it. Ha!

See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: Art, mixed media, pay it forward, surface design by k grace howes
5 Comments »

Some people bar hop.

I blog hop. After I catch up on posts from my regulars, and I have some spare time, I randomly choose a blog from someone’s sidebar and I’m off and running. That’s how I discovered Tim’s blog…..Tim Holtz that is.You have to go over and see the beautiful work he is is creating.

Now I have to tell you, he isn’t a fiber artist who works with fabric, his medium of choice is paper. Apparently last year he created some bea-yu-ti-full Christmas tags and included all the steps for each technique on his blog (see link above).

And he’s doing it again this year, making gorgeous tags. Not only that but he’s giving away some of his products when you leave a comment  on his blog…..if you happen to be the winner for the day that is.

Aren’t these tags gorgeous. Wouldn’t they look great  on a gift you give this year?

I love using his products, only I didn’t know that I was using them – like Distress Ink pads ( I so see more of them in my future), Alcohol Inks and the oh-so-cool grundgeboard that Sue Bleiweiss used on one of her art journals. (when there scroll down to the 3rd item on the left).

Now I know you must be thinking…what the heck does this have to do with fiber arts? Well if you are into texture and  surface design  and you love paper like I do then his products and creative ideas will fit in well in with your work to.

See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,

Tags: Art, Christmas, mixed media, surface design, working small by k grace howes
2 Comments »